


i get that i don't get it

by JkWriter



Series: Unrelated Spider-Man One-Shots [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, ENDGAME AND FFH SPOILERS, F/M, Flash Thompson Redemption, Fluff and Angst, Identity Reveal, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-24 23:24:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20022733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JkWriter/pseuds/JkWriter
Summary: Flash wasn't an idiot. He knew and then when the rest of the world found out he had to do something.ENDGAME AND FFH SPOILERS





	i get that i don't get it

Flash was a lot of things. 

Jerk? Yes. Slightly horrible human being? Of course. Insecure because his family didn’t have time for him? Hella. 

An idiot? Not so much. 

There was a reason he went to Midtown and it wasn’t his parent's money. He worked hard for his admittance. He studied for hours, worked through every excitement he could in his kitchen, and spent days rehearsing his interview. He joined as many extracurricular as he could from fencing to academic decathlon. He made friends, made a couple of enemies, and some people in between. 

For example, he would say he’s friends with Cindy, acquaintances with Michelle, and maybe enemies with Peter. He didn’t hate Peter, didn’t even dislike Peter, but there was something about him that made him an easy target so Flash picked on him. He teased him, sometimes pushed him into a locker, and in general, was an asshole for no reason other than he could be. Did he feel bad about it? Yes, but was he going to stop? No. Picking on Peter made him feel something, it was good but it wasn’t anything and Flash wanted to hold onto that as long as he could. 

When Spider-Man showed up Flash felt something different. Hope that someone from Queens was able to do something great, something that he could only dream of? Maybe, or maybe it was something else entirely. It was so easy to become a fan, to follow every account that tracked web-slingers movements and even create his own. It was so easy to dismiss Peter as knowing Spider-Man just like he had dismissed the Stark Internship but Ned was so adamant about it while Peter was hesitant. Something was up and Flash was determined to find out. And then Spider-Man didn’t show up to the party (according to the notifications was seen running through a neighborhood that was eerily close) and Peter disappeared. It was a bit suspicious but Flash wasn’t known for jumping to conclusions. He needed more information before making any decisions. 

Said information came in DC. 

He wasn’t surprised when Peter flaked because he had suspicions. He wasn’t surprised when Spider-Man saved them and Peter wasn’t there just like he wasn’t surprised with Spider-Man’s sudden disappearance after the Ferry Incident and Peter’s loss of his internship. It sucked. The Spider-Man disappeared from Queens was the day Flash truly gave up. Spider-Man gave him hope and now that was gone. 

He went through the motions. School. Practice. Home. Repeat. Sometimes he’d go to parties, other times he’d bug his friends who had parents that cared, but most of the time he stayed home watching the Spider-Man pages and keeping his updated because someone needed to stay active.

And then Homecoming. 

The suit, quite frankly, looked awful. Not that Flash would have been able to do any better. And Peter’s disguised voice was pretty bad too. He didn’t even think Peter could drive.

He gave him the car anyways. Peter sounded desperate and at the very least it was going to be one hell of a story.

It was weird knowing Peter, as Spider-Man in a homemade suit that looked like it did nothing for him, took down a plane. Flash doubted the crash was on purpose but hey, Spider-Man saved the day. It’s all everyone was talking about, it’s all Flash was talking about.

_ Spider-Man stole my car to save Tony Stark’s equipment.  _

Sure, Flash was grounded for life because his dad’s car got fucked, but it was worth it. And sure, it sucked seeing Liz move away after everything but her dad was kind of a psychopath.

And Spider-Man got his suit back. Which was awesome. But then Spider-Man followed got on a space ship and Flash couldn’t even ask Ned if Peter was alright because he wasn’t supposed to know about the whole “secret vigilante” thing and he was supposed to hate Peter. The whole class followed the situation on their phones rather than listen to anything they had to say about the art. 

Then Betty Brant disappeared. She turned to dust and vanished right in front of them and Flash just knew this had something to do with the spaceship. After Betty it was Abe, then Sally and MJ. People were screaming and total strangers were clinging to each other. Even Flash found himself gravitating to others for comfort until his hands were gone. 

His last thought before completely falling apart was “the Avengers lost”.

And then he woke up. He was still in MoMA surrounded by half of his class, the ones he saw turning to dust. What happened to everyone else? Where were Cindy and Gwen? Did Mr. Harrington just leave them behind? Why were people screaming? 

As it turns out five years isn’t that long when you’re dead for it. That was weird to think about. They were dead for five years while the Avengers sat around moping about not being able to save them until they could and then got half of them killed in the process. If Flash wasn’t one hundred percent convinced of Peter’s Spider-Man status he would have been considering the state he was in after the blip. Everyone knew Spider-Man fought against Thanos and his army and knew he was there when Tony Stark died. That sort of trauma doesn’t leave you and Flash left Peter alone until people started asking him why he suddenly liked Parker. Even then he never mentioned Iron Man or the Stark Internship, even when Peter and Ned openly talked about it.

Spider-Man went back to stopping crime and Flash went back to being a fan. His fan accounts were doing great and it felt like he finally had something going for himself. Sure, his family was falling apart post-blip but Flash was too busy not caring to say anything (he cared a lot but anything he did say would be ignored so it was better to say nothing). 

The trip to Europe was pretty exciting. It very much felt like a pity trip by the school because of the blip but any excuse to get away from home for a few weeks was fine by him. Flash was even willing to deal with Brad, the prick who tried to make himself belong in their class despite very much being an outsider. Out of everyone who wasn’t snapped, Flash hated him the most. 

Europe wasn’t terrible. Well, the Elementals and the drones that tried to kill them were pretty bad, but all things considered, it could have been worse. They could have died or something and they didn’t. And Brad was called out for being a creep by the entire class which Flash absolutely lived for, just sucked Peter wasn’t there to see it happen since he had the most problems with Brad. 

Flash thought that after Europe everything was going to go back to normal, whatever that was for Midtown. Maybe some Decathlon practices and everyone talking about Spider-Man’s villain of the week. 

The news dropped in the middle of a live stream. He was explaining London and Spider-Man’s appearance (really, Flash wondered how his class didn’t know Peter was Spider-Man at this point) and his near-death experience via drone. 

“It was fuckin’ crazy, dudes. These giant elemental things were attacking us and this Mysterio dude showed up. That was cool and all but Spider-Man was there. He came all the way from Queens to save us, probably heard his favorite school was in danger.” 

Notifications started flashing across the screen. Normal Spider-Man sightings were fine, he only followed three accounts that kept track of those, but these were hundreds and tweets and messages. Without closing the live stream he clicked on the first one. 

**SPIDER-MAN OUTED AS MURDEROUS SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD FROM QUEENS**

“Oh, shit,” Flash said, reading through the article. “Fuck. Right, I have to go. Reaction video to the news later.” 

He ended the live stream and switched to the Spider-Watch account. 

@spiderwatch 

Spider-Man currently at Richmond Hill. 

Accompanying the Tweet was a blurry picture of Spider-Man and was that MJ? Shit.

Flash grabbed his car keys and ran. Was this a bad idea? Definitely. Was he going to regret it? Probably. Was that going to stop him? Hell no. 

He kept Spider-Watch open, changing course every time Peter did. He had to himself, was Peter dumb enough to go home? The answer was yes. Peter did, in fact, go home where a mob was currently surrounding his building. Jesus Christ, Flash thought. He threw the car in park and ran down the alley he knew Peter’s window faced. 

“PARKER!” 

He could see someone moving behind the curtains but they didn’t make any move to open them. Dammit. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to MJ, red car by the alley. bring the spider-kid. you two need to get out of the city. 

Flash sent the message and ran back to his car. It didn’t take long for MJ and Peter to be throwing themselves into the back. 

“Where do you need to go?” 

“Lakehouse. It’s...Pepper…She gave me the address.” 

“Send it to me. MJ, I want you to flip off everyone we’re about to drive past. And hide Parker.” 

The car was in drive and they were off. Flash got them out of the city as quickly as he could with MJ flipping off everyone crowding around Spider-Man’s usual spots. He was expecting to hear Peter crying, maybe talking to MJ about what was happening, but he was completely silent. It was unnerving. 

“No offense Flash,” MJ said looking at him through the rearview mirror. “But why are you doing this?” 

“Because if Parker’s going to be risking his life to help out Queens then I might as well be risking mine to keep him from getting mobbed.” 

“I thought you’d be in denial or something.” 

“Why? I already knew Parker was Spider-Man. He wasn’t exactly subtle about it.” 

“You knew he was Spider-Man…”

“Yup. I’ve known since D.C. and he saved the class.” 

“And you didn’t say anything?” 

“Why would I? Parker and I aren’t exactly friends if you haven’t noticed.” 

“No, I did. I just thought you would have wanted to be apart of Spider-Man’s crew I guess.” 

“Oh, definitely, but if I suddenly started being nice to Parker people would ask questions.”

“So you acted normal.” 

“Yah.” 

“After the blip you stopped talking about...the thing.” 

“With everything that happened, it felt wrong to bring it up. I’m a jerk, but I’m not an asshole. I know what going too far is.” 

“Hm.” 

Peter looked asleep or pretending to be while they talked about him. That was fine. Flash still wasn’t sure what would be the right thing to say and he didn’t have the time to think about it as they pulled up to the lake house. Someone, probably Peter who wasn’t as asleep as he looked, let them know they were on the way as Pepper Potts was standing outside waiting for them. She rushed to the car before it even stopped and pulled Peter from it and into a hug. Flash parked and stood to the side with MJ as a little girl, the Stark kid, ran up to Peter and started babbling about grapes. 

“You must be MJ,” Pepper said turning to them. “And you…”

“Flash Thompson.” Pepper’s eyes widened and for a moment Flash wondered what she must have been told to gain that sort of reaction to him. 

“Well, thank you for bringing them here.” A helicopter circled ahead. “All of you, in the house. Flash, do you mind if we have your car moved?” 

“Go for it,” he said and then they were corralled into the house. It was quaint, not the kind of place Flash imagined Tony Stark retiring too but the snap must have changed him, it changed everyone else. 

“Harley’s on his way. So is Happy with May and Ned. Rhodey’s working damage control, as is T’challa and Stephen. Sam and Bucky are here somewhere...They were the first to arrive, wanted to patrol the grounds. Wanda said she’s on her way. I haven’t heard from Scott or Hope but I have sent them an invitation.” 

The Avengers. 

The Avengers were coming because a psychopath outed Peter’s identity. Flash knew Spider-Man worked with the Avengers from time to time but hearing that they were coming was something completely different. Did they all hear tales of Flash? Was he going to be murdered? Should he have told his parents goodbye? Would they even care if he was gone? 

He didn’t voice this because no one would care. Instead, he said, “Who’s Harley?” 

“Friend of Tony’s,” Pepper said. “He’s on the younger side, but extremely smart. Just started MIT last fall.” 

Seemed like everyone Tony Stark surrounded himself with was a genius. Pepper, Peter, Rhodey and the other Avengers. Flash liked to imagine that in another life, one where he wasn’t such a dick and his parents didn’t hate him, that maybe he could have been one of Tony Stark’s genius children. 

“That’s cool.” 

The door opened and Peter’s aunt, along with Ned and the guy from London, pushed themselves inside. Flash stepped back away from the reunion that he’s pretty sure in unnecessary since they probably saw each other that morning. 

The Avengers started arriving after that. First, it was Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson. They made some jokes about Germany that Flash didn’t understand in an attempt of getting Peter to stop looking so sad. None of them worked. Next was Wanda. She was glaring at everyone in the room who wasn’t Peter, Flash never felt so scared for his life as he did at that moment. More and more found their way into the house, surrounding Peter and trying to get him to smile. 

Flash wandered away. He wanted to leave and head back into the city before his parents had a chance to notice he was gone but he had no idea where Pepper had his car moved and it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway. It had been a few hours since his live stream and subsequent “superhero rescue”. 

He sat on the dock at the edge of the lake. There were helicopters still flying above but they weren’t looking for him. He couldn’t hear anyone in the house anymore and didn’t think he wanted to. Everyone in there knew Peter and liked him. They had inside jokes that Flash couldn’t even begin to understand. He was the outsider. 

“Hey.” 

Flash didn’t turn. “Shouldn’t you be inside hiding?” 

“Probably, but everyone is being a bit much.” 

“Well, you did get outed as a psychopath today.” 

Peter sat down next to him on the edge of the dock. “Last time I was here we were saying goodbye to Mr. Stark.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Pepper told me that I was the reason he did it. I never thought I meant much to him, ya know he was everything to me but I always believed he thought I was the annoying kid who didn’t listen and almost killed everyone on a ferry.” 

“I remember that. Liz’s dad, right?”

“Yeah. He took away my suit and told me I was done. Then I didn’t listen again and almost died and I guess he figured if I was going to be a hero no matter what he might as well make sure I wasn’t going to die in the process.” 

“Do you ever regret turning her dad in?”

“I did, for a while, but then I thought about everyone who would have been hurt if he kept going.” 

“You went to space.”

“Yeah.”

“You died in space.”

“I did. It wasn’t very pleasant, I’m sure Mr. Stark hated me for apologizing.” 

Peter apologizing for dying. Flash could imagine it. “What was space like?”

“Pretty terrifying. Thanos...The ship we were on went to his home planet, Titan. That’s where we met the Guardians of the Galaxy. They helped us and we thought we were gonna win but then Quill, Star-Lord, found out how Thanos got the soul stone and he lost it. I don’t blame him, I might have done the same thing if I was in his position.” 

“We were in MoMA when everyone dusted. I wanted to ask Ned if you were okay but I wasn’t supposed to know you were Spider-Man.” 

“Why did you never tell me you knew?”

“Like I told MJ, you and I aren’t exactly best friends. I thought you’d freak and I didn’t want to deal with that. No offense.” 

“None taken. I kind of understand, I probably would have freaked out.” 

“It was weird knowing you were up in space somewhere. Didn’t even know what you were doing or fighting until five years later.” 

“Thanos was a bitch. He had this idea that if half the population was wiped out then the universe wouldn’t suffer the same fate as his own home. He used the infinity stones to do that.”

“And then the Avengers brought us back.” 

“Yeah, they did.”

“I see people who still blame them for what happened like their loved ones weren’t brought back while they gave their lives to do it.” 

“I got to say goodbye to Mr. Stark and Steve, but not Natasha. She was gone before we were even back. The soul stone, it needed a sacrifice. A soul for a soul is what Hawkeye said. They fought and she won. And then we lost Mr. Stark on the battlefield. He used the stones and it killed him. Steve had a better ending. He was tired of fighting, tired of this, so he stayed in the past and made a life. Has a couple of grandkids running around somewhere.” 

“Sounds nice.”

“Yeah, I think it was. He’s still by far the scariest Avenger. He’s living up in Brooklyn, near his apartment from the 40s.” 

Flash stared out into the water. He could imagine the Avengers, what was left of them, and their families coming here to honor Tony. Maybe they cried or maybe they used all their tears in the final battle. It was hard to imagine someone like Bucky Barnes or James Rhodes crying but he thinks they would for Tony. 

“I’m sorry about everything.” 

“Are you apologizing?”

“Yup. I think it’s deserved. I’ve been a dick and you didn’t deserve it. You were just an easy target and I guess I have problems I never learned to deal with. Also, what Mysterio did was an asshole move.” 

“I trusted him, gave him EDITH before realizing he insane.” 

“That’s not your fault. He was manipulative, made the whole world think Spider-Man was a criminal mastermind when he helps old ladies cross the street.” 

“But the world doesn’t know that.” 

“They will. You’ve got people on your side. Every Avenger in there looked like they’d kill for you and the decathlon group chat has been going crazy since the news dropped.” 

“I don’t know if I wanna look.” 

“All good things. They believe in Spider-Man, in you.”

“Should they?”

Flash finally looked at Peter, no longer in the Spider-Man suit but an old MIT sweatshirt that was falling apart with the hood pulled up and Hello Kitty pajama bottoms. Peter was staring out at the water, just like Flash had been but his eyes focused on the horizon. He wasn’t crying, not yet, but Flash could tell he was close. Flash was reminded that Spider-Man was sixteen. Spider-Man was Peter Parker who cried when they watched a documentary about whales in environmental science and spoke in only puns for a week straight. 

“Yeah, I think they should.” 

And Peter smiled. 

**Author's Note:**

> i had this idea that flash knew about peter and never said anything
> 
> ive got a [discord](https://discord.gg/Pwah8sR) if you wanna come hang out


End file.
